Due to pregnancy, Latvian mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča has withdrawn from the title role in The Royal Opera’s production of Carmen, which opens in December 2013. Replacement casting for the role will be announced in due course.

The 2013/14 Season sees the programme of the Linbury Studio Theatre integrated into The Royal Opera with new works including How the Whale Became (based on a collection of stories by Ted Hughes) and The Wasp Factory, an adaptations of the novel by Iain Banks. In total five new commissions and two UK premieres will be staged in the Linbury.

‘It’s really exciting for us to be able to programme not just for the Main Stage, but for the Linbury where we can do more innovative work: things that we think will move opera forward,’ says Kasper.